I Tried Martha Stewart’s Favorite Breakfast Sandwich, and Her Cheese Trick Makes All the Difference

I make breakfast sandwiches all the time without giving them much thought. My family loves them, they’re quick and filling on busy mornings, and there are few breakfast problems that can’t be solved by putting bacon, egg and cheese between two halves of something warm and toasty.

Martha Stewart, though, is not necessarily the person I associate with a deliciously greasy breakfast sandwich. This is a woman who seems more at home among crisp linens and polished silver. But when Martha recently shared her favorite breakfast sandwich on Instagram, I was delighted to discover that it involves bacon grease, plenty of cheese and an ordinary English muffin. Naturally, she still manages to make the whole thing feel just a little more refined.

What is Martha Stewart’s favorite breakfast sandwich?

At its core, Martha’s sandwich is familiar: bacon, a sunny-side-up egg and fontina on a toasted English muffin. But it’s the details that make it distinctly Martha.

For starters, she doesn’t waste the bacon grease. Once the bacon is cooked, the egg goes directly into the same pan, picking up all that salty, smoky flavor left behind. This is a practice I can enthusiastically endorse. Bacon grease is kitchen gold in my house, and I’ll cook just about anything in it when given the opportunity.

Then there’s the fontina, which Martha uses twice and in two forms. Sliced fontina goes onto the toasted English muffin, while shredded fontina is scattered directly over the egg as it cooks. It seems slightly fussy for a breakfast sandwich until you consider the role of each: The shredded cheese melts into the hot egg, while the slices give you a thicker, creamier layer against the crisp muffin. Same cheese, two different jobs.

Fontina is an especially smart choice here, too. It’s buttery and mild enough not to compete with the bacon or egg, and it melts beautifully.

How to Make Martha’s Egg Sandwich

Start by splitting and toasting an English muffin. Add sliced fontina to the hot muffin while you cook a few strips of bacon. Remove the bacon once it’s crispy, but leave the rendered fat in the pan.

Crack an egg directly into the bacon grease and cook it sunny-side up, scattering grated fontina over the top so it melts as the egg finishes cooking.

Layer the bacon and cheesy egg onto the fontina-topped English muffin and replace the top.

There isn’t anything revolutionary here. It’s bacon, egg and cheese on an English muffin, and those ingredients were already doing delicious work before Martha got involved. But the small choices make a difference. Cooking the egg in bacon grease carries that smoky flavor through the whole sandwich, and using fontina both under and on the egg means puts melted cheese in every bite.

The result is rich, crisp, salty and just messy enough to require an extra napkin. It’s still very much the breakfast sandwich you’d hope to find at a good diner; Martha has simply given it better cheese and made sure not to waste perfectly delicious bacon grease. Frankly, I wouldn’t have expected anything less.

Have you tried Martha’s breakfast sandwich before? Let us know what you thought in the comments below!

Related:

• I Tried Martha Stewart’s Favorite Comfort Food—and Yes, It’s a Labor of Love
• The Ways Martha Stewart’s ‘Entertaining’ Changed Everything We Do When Entertaining
• I Cooked with Martha Stewart, and Here’s 1 Thing I’ll Always Do When I Cook Now